Glass choppers use fluid or electric powered blade rotors to break continuous glass rovings into individual short glass fiber lengths. These choppers use a hard rubber back up roll as an anvil which cooperates with a rotor carrying one or more transversely extending blades. The back up roll and rotor cooperate to chop a discrete glass fiber length off the continuous roving each time a rotor blade contacts the back up roll.
Continuous fiberglass filaments are manufactured by flowing molten glass through a bushing, followed by attenuating the material. The resultant filaments, after solidifying, may then be directed to another area for conversion into desired products, or collected on a bobbin for storage prior to further processing. Formation of the filaments also normally involves treating the filaments with a size to enhance the properties of the fiberglass in subsequent operations.
Continuous filaments include a single filament or a plurality of filaments in a strand, with the filament having a continuous length or substantial length, e.g., greater than one foot. A plurality of filaments is a plurality of segments of a single filament in adjacent relationships, such as occurs when a single filament is wrapped around a bobbin tube.
Typically, fiberglass packages are formed from continuous filaments wound onto a tube. The inner end of the filament is then pulled from within the interior of the package to unwind the filament. This interior end feeds into the glass chopper.
Fiber choppers are employed in conjunction with liquid resin spray dispensers to form a stream of resin-impregnated chopped fibers that are laid down on a substrate to form a glass fiber reinforced structure. Typically, a fiber chopper has a body or housing, a backing roller and a chopping roller. As an elongated glass fiber strand passes between the rollers, it is chopped into relatively short fiber segments and propelled by the action of the rollers out through a nozzle opening in the body of the chopper. The body and thus the nozzle are oriented so as to direct the stream of fibers into intersecting relationship with a stream of catalyzed resin, thus forming a stream of resin-impregnated chopped fibers. The stream of resin impregnated fibers is directed toward a substrate, and is allowed to impinge the substrate and form a layer of resin-impregnated fibers on the substrate. Typical products include auto body parts, underground storage tanks and boats.